I have a shapefile of United States counties. I also have an Excel file of the share of the black population in each county. I'd like to make a map of this using GIS. (Before you say that there are ways to do this outside of GIS, yes I realize that, but I would like to do this in GIS, so please let us not go there.)
I am not at all sure how to go about this.
Starting backwards: First, I have my shapefile loaded. I know I can save the shapefile as say a .jpg or .pdf under File -> Export Map and then change the Save as Type of .jpg or .pdf. However, when I do so, I get some white in the background from GIS. Is there a way to do this without getting the whtie in the background?
Second, how would I include a legend in the map?
Third, is there a way I can indicate different shades of one color to mean different things? Like a dark blue is more than 2/3 black, light blue is between 1/3 and 2/3 and white is less than 1/3?
Fourth, how do I merge the data on the black population in? I suppose worst case, I can type it in manually by hand. But preferably I wouldn't have to. Is there a way to rearrange the Excel file so that I can merge it in? Like can I merge it in using the fips codes if both files have that?
I use ArcMap in ArcGIS 10.1.
I very much appreciate any help!